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The WALK event, July 29 at 7:30 am, at Legion Field, is the kick-off for the GET HEALTHY BIRMINGHAM campaign, a partnership with the City of Birmingham and the UAB Minority Health & Research Center (MHRC). It is a campaign to encourage citizens to exercise more and eat healthier.

Birmingham Mayor Bernard Kincaid has pledged his active participation as a role model for losing weight with daily walking and healthy eating. The mayor and his wife will join Birmingham residents for a walk around Legion Field during the July 29 kickoff event, beginning at 7:30 am. The event will feature a short program inside the stadium, followed by a walk around the stadium track and outside. A variety of physical activities for adults and children will also be available.

As a part of Get Healthy Birmingham, volunteers from each community have pledged to enroll in the award-winning UAB EatRight weight-loss program, and to engage in regular walking or other physical exercise for one year. To help residents get fit, neighborhood leaders are identifying appropriate walking trails in each of Birmingham’s 23 communities—in malls, parks, schools and churches—where participants will be able to walk on a daily basis after the kick-off event.

Leaders of each community will appoint team captains to organize walking teams, and distribute pedometers and booklets to participants. The captains will keep track of results and report them to a specially designed, password-protected MHRC website. The website will offer general information about the “Get Healthy Birmingham” initiative, maps of all walking locations, interactive database for self-tracking of effort, scientific information on the benefits of walking, and motivational content.